Having just passed the winter solstice (here in the Northern hemisphere), I think this question is still of interest. I asked it on an astronomy forum, but didn't get any useful answers.

We are taught that the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year (in "mid-Northern latitudes", as Jack Horkheimer would phrase it). But what is the *longest night* of the year? Is it the night from sunset on December 20 to sunrise on December 21? The night from sunset on December 21 to sunrise on December 22? Or some other night altogether?

I have tried a web search to answer this question, but with no luck. The U.S. Naval Observatory site gives sunrise and sunset times, but they are rounded to the nearest minute, which is not precise enough to answer my question.

Anybody know?

Don